They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks but at 32, one time Premier League striker Marcus Tudgay insists he’s looking forward to improving his game by watching Coventry City’s precocious forward line.

The wise head will, no doubt, offer the benefit of his vast experience to youngsters Adam Armstrong, Ruben Lameiras and James Maddison but he admitted he’s excited by the young talent in the team.

“Adam has come in and he’s a young lad who I feel I can learn from,” said Tudgay, who underlined his importance in the squad with a goal (and another that should have been given) at Rochdale on Tuesday night when he replaced the Newcastle United loan striker who wasn’t allowed by his parent club to feature in the Capital One Cup.

'I'll be taking little bits from Armstrong'

“He’s come from a big club and I will definitely be taking little bits from him. I like Ruben as well, how he is and what he does, what he sees in the game and his passing. His first touch goes past the player sometimes and I wonder, ‘how’s he done that?’

“Then you have got Madders and it’s good to be a part of that with such good young players coming into the team. So for me, it’s an eye-opener to play with these lads and if I get to play up with Adam it will be a real pleasure.”

Coventry City's Marcus Tudgay is mobbed after scoring his equaliser

He added: “I obviously got the nod to start on Tuesday because Adam couldn’t play. I didn’t get many minutes in the pre-season with niggles here and there and the gaffer was trying to save me, so to get a start was pleasing. I know what I can do, I’ve said it before so I am not going to go on about it.

“It was nice to get a goal but it’s a team game and we all want to do well. I thought the boys put in a shift and it was disappointing to go out on pens. We have to recover, get plenty of rest and go again on Saturday.”

Although it may mean he gets left out now and again, Tudgay is all in favour of a squad rotation policy, adding: “I think each game will come and it could be a new formation, different personnel and fingers crossed it’s like that because you want these young boys to get a chance and if the gaffer throws them in it’s up to them to take their chances.

“I think they did that on Tuesday night, some of the young boys stood up. The first 25/30 minutes wasn’t pretty but we never crumbled and carried on when we went a goal down and kept fighting and doing what the gaffer wants to do.”